Email Announcement Archive

[Users] NERSC Weekly Email, Week of May 11, 2020

# NERSC Weekly Email, Week of May 11, 2020 <a name="top"></a> #
## Contents ##
- [Summary of Upcoming Events and Key Dates](#dates)
## [NERSC Status](#section1) ##
- [Normal NERSC Operations Continue During Shelter-in-Place Period](#curtailment)
## [This Week's Events & Deadlines](#section2) ##
- [Submit Proposal Before Sunday for July NERSC Online Virtual Hackathon](#gpuhackathon)
- [IDEAS-ECP Webinar on Accelerating Numerical Libraries with Multi-Precision Algorithms on Wednesday](#ecpwebinar)
- [CUDA Training Series Continues this Wednesday](#cudatrain)
## [Updates at NERSC ](#section3) ##
- [Save the Date: NERSC User Group Annual Meeting Set for August 17](#nugmtg)
- [Join the NERSC Users Slack Sponsored by NUG Today!](#slack)
- [Share Your Research, Images, Movies, and Journal Covers with NERSC!](#share)
- [VTune Profiler Default Upgraded to 2020 & All Older Versions Deprecated](#vtune)
## [Upcoming Training Events ](#section4) ##
- [Register Now for May 21 Online Hands-On Training on Variable-Time Jobs!](#vtjobstrain)
- [Registration Open for ARM Debugging and Profiling Tools Tutorial on June 25](#armtools)
- [Register Now for UPC++ Webinar on May 27](#upcpp)
- [Registration Open for New User Training on June 10](#newusertrain)
- [OpenACC Training Series Continues May 28](#openacc)
## [Calls for Participation ](#section5) ##
- [Submissions for INFOCOMP 2020 Due May 18](#infocomp)
## [NERSC News ](#section6) ##
- [This Week on "NERSC User News" Podcast: GPU Hackathons](#podcast)
- [Come Work for NERSC!](#careers)
- [Upcoming Outages](#outages)
- [About this Email](#about)
## Summary of Upcoming Events and Key Dates <a name="dates"/></a> ##
May 2020
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 *13* 14 15 16 13 May NVIDIA CUDA Training [1]
13 May IDEAS-ECP Monthly Webinar [2]
*17* 18 19 *20**21* 22 23 17 May GPU Hackathon Submissions Due [3]
20 May Cori Monthly Maintenance [4]
21 May Variable-time Jobs Training [5]
24 *25* 26 *27**28* 29 30 25 May Memorial Day [6]
27 May UPC++ Training [7]
28 May OpenACC Training part 2 [8]
31
June 2020
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 *10* 11 12 13 10 Jun New User Training [9]
14 15 16 17 *18* 19 20 20 Jun NVIDIA CUDA Training [1]
21 22 *23* 24 *25* 26 27 23 Jun OpenACC Training part 3 [7]
25 Jun ARM Tools Training [10]
28 29 30
July 2020
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 *3* 4 3 July Independence Day Holiday [11]
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 *21* 22 23 24 25 21 July NVIDIA CUDA Training [1]
26 27 28 29 30 31
1. **May 13, June 18, and July 21, 2020**: [NVIDIA CUDA Training Series](#cudatrain)
2. **May 13, 2020**: [IDEAS-ECP Monthly Webinar](#ecpwebinar)
3. **May 17, 2020**: [GPU Hackathon Submissions Due](#gpuhackathon)
4. **May 20, 2020**: Cori monthly maintenance
5. **May 21, 2020**: [Variable-time Jobs training](#vtjobstrain)
6. **May 25, 2020**: Memorial Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support)
7. **May 27, 2020**: [ECP/ALCF UPC++ Training](#upcpp)
8. **May 28 and June 23, 2020**: [OpenACC Training](#openacc)
9. **June 10, 2020**: [NERSC New User Training](#newusertrain)
10. **June 25, 2020**: [ARM Debugging/Profiling Tools Training](#armtools)
11. **July 3, 2020**: Independence Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support)
12. All times are **Pacific Time zone**
- **Upcoming Planned Outage Dates** (see [Outages section](#outages) for more
details)
- **May 20, 2020**: Cori
- **May 20, 2020**: ProjectA (retirement)
- **Other Significant Dates**
- **July 6-12, 2020**: [SciPy2020](https://www.scipy2020.scipy.org/) Conference
- **July 7 & 13-15, 2020**: [GPU Hackathon](#gpuhackathon)
- **August 17, 2020**: [NERSC User Group Meeting](#nugmtg) (save the date)
- **September 7, 2020**: Labor Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support)
- **November 26-27, 2020**: Thanksgiving Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support)
- **December 24, 2020-January 1, 2021**: Christmas/New Year Holiday (Limited Consulting or Account Support)
([back to top](#top))
---
## NERSC Status <a name="section1"/></a> ##
### Normal NERSC Operations Continue During Shelter-in-Place Period <a name="curtailment"/></a>
Berkeley Lab, where NERSC is housed, is located in a city and county in
California that remain under a Public Health Shelter-in-Place Order. Under this
Order, only essential businesses may remain open. NERSC is considered an
essential business due to its national importance, so we remain in operation,
but with the majority of NERSC staff working remotely and only a skeleton crew
onsite.
During this period, you can expect regular online consulting and account support
but no telephone support. Trainings will continue to be held online, or
postponed if online is infeasible. Regular maintenances on the systems will
continue to be performed while minimizing onsite staff presence, which could
result in longer downtimes than would occur under normal circumstances.
Because onsite staffing is so minimal, we request that you refrain from
calling NERSC Operations except to report urgent system issues.
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---
## This Week's Events & Deadlines <a name="section2"/></a> ##
### Submit Proposal Before Sunday for July NERSC Online Virtual Hackathon <a name="gpuhackathon"/></a>
NERSC, in conjunction with NVIDIA and OLCF, will host a GPU Hackathon in July as
part of NVIDIA's annual [GPU Hackathon Series](https://gpuhackathons.org/)!
The event will take place online only, with an opening day on July 7 and the
main event from July 13-15, 2020.
This year, the hackathon is going digital. Hack with world-class mentors from
the safety of your home or office!
Teams should consist of three or more developers who are intimately familiar
with (some part of) their application, and they will work alongside two mentors
with GPU programming expertise. If you want/need to get your code running (or
optimized) on a GPU-accelerated system, these hackathons offer a unique
opportunity to set aside 4 days, surround yourself with experts in the field,
and push toward your development goals. This week's NERSC User News
[podcast](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/GPU-Hackathons-Kevin-Gott-Interview-edsv5u/a-a25lhon)
is an additional source of information on how the hackathons are organized and
the benefits of participation.
For more information, or to submit a short proposal form, please visit the GPU
Hackathons event page:
<https://www.gpuhackathons.org/event/nersc-gpu-hackathon>
or NERSC's event page:
<https://sites.google.com/lbl.gov/nersc-gpuhackathon>.
**Please note the deadline to submit a proposal is May 17th, 2020.** If you have
any questions, please feel free to contact Kevin Gott (kngott@lbl.gov).
### IDEAS-ECP Webinar on Accelerating Numerical Libraries with Multi-Precision Algorithms on Wednesday <a name="ecpwebinar"/></a>
The May webinar in the Best Practices for HPC Software Developers series is
entitled "Accelerating Numerical Software Libraries with Multi-Precision
algorithms", and will take place this Wednesday, May 13, 2020, at 10:00 am
Pacific time.
This webinar, presented by Hartwig Anzt (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and
Piotr Luszczek (University of Tennessee), will explain how low-precision,
high-speed special function units in modern processors can be leveraged to
create fast numerical libraries for production computing.
For more information and to register (there is no cost but registration is
required), please see
<https://www.exascaleproject.org/event/multprec/>.
### CUDA Training Series Continues this Wednesday <a name="cudatrain"/></a>
NVIDIA is presenting a 9-part CUDA training series intended to help new and
existing GPU programmers understand the main concepts of the CUDA platform and
its programming model. Each part will include a 1-hour presentation and example
exercises. The exercises are meant to reinforce the material from the
presentation and can be completed during a 1-hour hands-on session following
each lecture via teleconference or on your own. **These events are being held
exclusively online.**
The fifth training in the series covers CUDA atomics, reductions, and warp
shuffle. These operations can help you in cases where exposing parallelism is
not immediately obvious due to potential thread contention.
Following the presentation will be a hands-on session where participants can
complete example exercises meant to reinforce the presented concepts. As this
module's exercises are expected to take longer than the allocated time, an
additional session to walk through the exercises has been scheduled for Monday,
May 19.
For more information please see
<https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/cuda-atomics-reductions-and-warp-shuffle-part-5-of-9-cuda-training-series/>.
Other scheduled dates in the series:
- June 18: 6. [Managed Memory](https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/managed-memory-part-6-of-9-cuda-training-series-june-18-2020/)
- July 21: 7. [CUDA Concurrency](https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/cuda-concurrency-part-7-of-9-cuda-training-series-july-21-2020/)
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---
## Updates at NERSC <a name="section3"/></a> ##
### Save the Date: NERSC User Group Annual Meeting Set for August 17 <a name="nugmtg"/></a>
Mark your calendars for the annual meeting of the NERSC User Group (NUG), which
will be held online on Monday, August 17. More details on the schedule of events
are forthcoming.
### Join the NERSC Users Slack Sponsored by NUG Today! <a name="slack"/></a>
Are you interested in discussing NERSC happenings and issues with your fellow
NERSC users? Do you want to get or give some advice from a user perspective
about something in your workflow? If so, please join the NERSC Users Slack
workspace. For more information and a link to join, please see
<https://www.nersc.gov/users/NUG/nersc-users-slack/> (login required).
**Please note that this Slack workspace is not an official NERSC staff-supported
platform.** While NERSC staff may sometimes join the NERSC Users Slack, the
best way to reach NERSC is still through the online help desk at
<https://help.nersc.gov>.
### Share Your Research, Images, Movies, and Journal Covers with NERSC! <a name="share"/></a>
NERSC is always looking for stories, images, movies, and journal cover stories
related to research conducted at NERSC. Please tell us about your research using
the [NERSC Science Highlights Submission Form](https://www.nersc.gov/science/science-highlight-submit/)
and we could feature your work in our [news stories](https://www.nersc.gov/news-publications/nersc-news/science-news/),
[science highlight presentations](https://www.nersc.gov/science/science-highlights-presentations/),
and/or other NERSC presentations and reports.
### VTune Profiler Default Upgraded to 2020 & All Older Versions Deprecated <a name="vtune"/></a>
Last month, the Intel VTune profiler version default was upgraded to
version 2020. Version 2020 includes significant upgrades in functionality and
performance, and changes the names of the executables to simpler and
easier-to-understand strings.
While the older versions (2018.up3 and 2019.up3) remain on Cori, we
encourage you to upgrade your workflow to `vtune/2020`. The deprecated versions
will no longer collect performance data, but can continue to be used to read
and analyze existing performance data that was collected with these tools.
For more information on using VTune at NERSC, please see the NERSC VTune
documentation page at
<https://docs.nersc.gov/programming/performance-debugging-tools/vtune/>.
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---
## Upcoming Training Events <a name="section4"/></a> ##
### Register Now for May 21 Online Hands-On Training on Variable-Time Jobs! <a name="vtjobstrain"/></a>
NERSC will host a two-hour, online hands-on user training on variable-time jobs
on Thursday, May 21, from 10:00 am to noon (Pacific time). The training begins
with a 30-minute presentation, followed by a 90-minute hands-on session.
Variable-time jobs can greatly improve queue turnaround by automatically
exploiting opportunities for backfill in Slurm, allowing the job to start sooner
than it would otherwise. Applications need to be capable of checkpoint/restart,
either through application-level checkpointing or via external checkpointing
tools (e.g., DMTCP).
For more information and to register, please see:
<https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/online-hands-on-user-training-on-variable-time-jobs-on-thursday-may-21-2020/>.
### Registration Open for ARM Debugging and Profiling Tools Tutorial on June 25 <a name="armtools"/></a>
Registration is now open for the ARM Debugging and Profiling Tools (DDT, MAP and
Performance Reports) Tutorial that will be held on Thursday, June 25. Attendees
will learn how to efficiently use these popular GUI parallel debugging and
profiling tools on Cori to analyze and improve the functionality and performance
of their codes.
The training will be presented online only, using Zoom technology.
Please see <https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/arm-debugging-and-profiling-tools-tutorial-june-25-2020/> for the agenda and to register.
### Register Now for UPC++ Webinar on May 27 <a name="upcpp"/></a>
UPC++ is a C++11 library providing classes and functions that support
Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) programming. UPC++ provides mechanisms
for low-overhead one-sided communication, moving computation to data through
remote-procedure calls, and expressing dependencies between asynchronous
computations and data movement. It is particularly well-suited for implementing
elaborate distributed data structures where communication is irregular or
fine-grained. The UPC++ interfaces are designed to be composable and similar to
those used in conventional C++. The UPC++ programmer can expect communication to
run at close to hardware speeds.
In this webinar, hosted by DOE's Exascale Computing Project and the ALCF, we
will introduce basic concepts and advanced optimization techniques of UPC++. We
will discuss the UPC++ memory and execution models and walk through basic
algorithm implementations. We will also look at irregular applications and show
how they can take advantage of UPC++ features to optimize their performance.
This training will be held on May 27 from 9 am to noon Pacific.
The training is free but registration is required. For more information and to
register, please see <https://www.exascaleproject.org/event/alcf-ecp-upc-webinar/>.
### Registration Open for New User Training on June 10 <a name="newusertrain"/></a>
Registration is now open for the NERSC New User Training that will be held
online on Wednesday, June 10.
The purpose of the training is to provide users new to NERSC with the basics on
our computational systems; accounts and allocations; programming environment,
tools, and best practices; and data ecosystem.
**The training will be presented online only**, using Zoom technology.
Please see
<https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/new-user-training-june-10-2020/>
for the agenda and to register.
### OpenACC Training Series Continues May 28 <a name="openacc"/></a>
OpenACC is a directive-based approach to parallel programming for heterogeneous
architectures, where developers specify regions of code (written in C, C++,
or Fortran) to be offloaded from a host CPU to a GPU. This approach is meant
to reduce the amount of programming effort required of developers relative to
low-level models, such as CUDA.
NVIDIA will present a
[3-part OpenACC training series](https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/openacc-training-series/)
intended to help new and existing GPU programmers learn to use the
OpenACC API.
Each part will include a one-hour presentation and example exercises. The
exercises are meant to reinforce the material from the presentation and
can be completed during a one-hour hands-on session following each lecture
(via teleconference) or on your own. **All training sessions will be online
only.**
The May training covers data management in OpenACC. For more information and to
register, please see <https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/openacc-data-management-part-2-of-3-openacc-training-series-may-28-2020/>.
Remaining in the series:
- [Loop Optimizations with OpenACC (June 23)](https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/loop-optimizations-with-openacc-part-3-of-3-openacc-training-series-june-23-2020/)
Previously held sessions:
- [Introduction to OpenACC (April 17)](https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/introduction-to-openacc-part-1-of-3-openacc-training-series-april-17-2020/)
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---
## Calls for Participation <a name="section5"/></a> ##
### Submissions for INFOCOMP 2020 Due May 18 <a name="infocomp"/></a>
INFOCOMP2020, The Tenth International Conference on Advanced Communications and
Computation, is soliciting academic, research, and industrial contributions
presenting research and practical results, position papers addressing the pros
and cons of specific proposals, survey papers, and panel proposals.
The conference will be held in **Lisbon, Portugal** from September 27 to
October 01, 2020 -- please note the location change. The submission deadline is
**May 18, 2020**.
Please see the [INFOCOMP website](http://www.iaria.org/conferences2020/INFOCOMP20.html)
for information about the conference and the
[submission page](http://www.iaria.org/conferences2020/SubmitINFOCOMP20.html)
for submission details.
([back to top](#top))
---
## NERSC News <a name="section6"/></a> ##
### This Week on "NERSC User News" Podcast: GPU Hackathons <a name="podcast"/></a>
In this interview with NERSC Application Performance Specialist Kevin Gott,
learn about the purpose of GPU hackathons, how this year's hackathon is
organized, and how to apply for the upcoming GPU hackathon sponsored by NERSC.
The NERSC User News podcast, produced by the NERSC User Engagement Group, is
available at <https://www.nersc.gov/news-publications/nersc-user-podcasts/> and
syndicated through iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and more. A direct link to this week's podcast is
<https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/GPU-Hackathons-Kevin-Gott-Interview-edsv5u/a-a25lhon>.
Please give it a listen, and let us know what you think via a ticket at
<https://help.nersc.gov>.
### Come Work for NERSC! <a name="careers"/></a>
NERSC currently has several openings for postdocs, system administrators, and
more! If you are looking for new opportunities, please consider the following
openings:
- [HPC Storage Infrastructure Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-storage-infrastructure-engineer-2697):
Support and optimize hundreds of petabytes of parallel storage that is served to
thousands of clients at terabytes per second.
- [Software/DevOps/API Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/software-devops-api-engineer-2611):
Work on the system that tracks and manages resource usage and help build an API
to automate the use of supercomputing resources.
- [Storage Systems Group Leader](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/storage-systems-group-leader-2596):
Lead the group responsible for supporting NERSC's large-scale parallel file
systems and archival storage systems with an eye towards balancing performance,
stability, and usability for NERSC's over 7000 users.
- [HPC Network Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-network-engineer-2580):
Be part of the team who shares in the design, implementation and on-going
maintenance of NERSC's high performance networks.
- [NESAP Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-engineer-2476):
Work as part of a multidisciplinary team composed of computational and domain
scientists working together to produce mission-relevant science that pushes the
limits of HPC in simulation, data, or learning.
- [HPC Architecture and Performance Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-architecture-and-performance-engineer-2427):
Evaluate global technology trends and combine them with the needs of NERSC users
with the goal of architecting the supercomputing ecosystem of the future.
- [Application Performance Specialists (for ECP)](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/application-performance-specialist-1010):
Help prepare large-scale scientific codes for next-generation high performance
computing (HPC) systems.
- [NESAP for Simulations Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-simulations-postdoctoral-fellow-2004):
work in multidisciplinary teams to transition simulation codes to NERSC's new
Perlmutter supercomputer and produce mission-relevant science that truly pushes
the limits of high-end computing.
- [NESAP for Data Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-data-postdoctoral-fellow-2412)
work in multidisciplinary teams to transition data-analysis codes to NERSC's new
Perlmutter supercomputer and produce mission-relevant science that truly pushes
the limits of high-end computing.
- [NESAP for Learning Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-learning-postdoctoral-fellow-1964):
work in multidisciplinary teams to develop and implement cutting-edge machine
learning/deep learning solutions in codes that will run on NERSC's new
Perlmutter supercomputer and produce mission-relevant science that truly pushes
the limits of high-end computing.
- [HPC Storage Systems Analyst](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-storage-systems-analyst-1851):
Help architect, deploy, and manage NERSC's storage hierarchy (including Burst
Buffer, Lustre, and Spectrum Scale filesystems, and HPSS archives).
(**Note:** We have received reports that the URLs for the jobs change without
notice, so if you encounter a page indicating that a job is closed or not found,
please check by navigating to <https://jobs.lbl.gov/>, scrolling down to
the 9th picture that says "All Jobs" and clicking on that. Then, under
"Business," select "View More" and scroll down until you find the checkbox for
"NE-NERSC" and select it.)
We know that NERSC users can make great NERSC employees! We look forward to
seeing your application.
### Upcoming Outages <a name="outages"/></a>
- **Cori**
- 05/20/20 5:00-19:00 PDT, Scheduled Maintenance
- **ProjectA**
- 05/20/20 5:00-5:00 PDT, Retired
*ProjectA has been retired all data has been copied to CFS*
Visit <http://my.nersc.gov/> for latest status and outage
information.
### About this Email <a name="about"/></a>
You are receiving this email because you are the owner of an active account at
NERSC. This mailing list is automatically populated with the email addresses
associated with active NERSC accounts. In order to remove yourself from this
mailing list, you must close your account, which can be done by emailing
<accounts@nersc.gov> with your request.
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